The second enforcer strikes from my right, his augmented elbow driving toward my ribs in a calculated attempt to exploit the gap in my wing coverage.
I shift.
My right wing sweeps inward, the bone spur catching his strike mid-arc. The impact sends a sharp jolt through the membrane, but the leather holds. The enforcer grunts, his bio-engineered muscle absorbing the shock, his eyes narrowing as he recalibrates.
The third and fourth enforcers flank wide, attempting to circle around my defensive position.
They will not reach her.
I will not allow it.
My amber veins flare brighter, the gold light casting sharp shadows across the blood-red corridor. The fated-mate bond hums through my chest, a constant, thrumming pressure thatoverrides every tactical calculation with a single, absolute imperative:
Protect.
The first enforcer recovers, lunging forward again with a heavy shoulder strike aimed at my center mass.
I let him come.
And then I move.
I am not fast by human standards.
I am not graceful.
But I amancient.
And I have spent eight centuries learning how to kill.
I retract my wings with a sharp snap, the sudden absence of the barrier causing the first enforcer to stumble forward, his momentum unchecked. I step into his space, my frame closing the distance before he can recover, and drive my stone-hard fist directly into his left shoulder.
Not his face.
Not his chest.
Hisshoulder.
The exact point where the deltoid anchor meets the rigid trapezius girdle.
The point Tamsin identified.
The point where bio-engineered muscle fails catastrophically under targeted pressure.
My fist connects with brutal precision.
There is a moment—a single, suspended micro-second—where I feel the resistance. The dense, augmented tissue pushes back against my knuckles, the bio-engineered fibers holding firm under the impact.
And then theycascade.
The failure is not gradual.
It is violent.
Immediate.
Absolute.
The enforcer's deltoid locks first, the muscle fibers misfiring in rapid, uncontrolled spasms. The trapezius follows, the rigid girdle structure freezing into unyielding stone. His entire shoulder seizes, the augmented tissue turning rigid and immovable, his arm hanging useless at his side.
